What do you think?
Rate this book
Druids of Avalon #4
Silver Silence
Drawing on Arthurian legend, Nash creates an intricate romantic adventure around the identity of the mysterious Merlin, the Lady of the Lake, and the birth of the Once and Future King. A compelling mix of romance, myth, history and sensuality.
322 pages, Paperback
First published October 27, 2009
25 people are currently reading
231 people want to read
About the author
Joy Nash
67 books120 followersJoy Nash is a USA Today Bestselling Author and RITA Award Finalist applauded by Booklist for her "tart wit, superbly crafted characters, and sexy, magic-steeped plots." Joy, best known for the Druids of Avalon and Immortals series, writes romantic fiction in historical, contemporary, and alternate-reality settings. Her newest series is the apocalyptic fantasy The Nephilim: Demons Among Us.
Joy once read a book about a girl living on the moon and thought it was real, until her big sister messed everything up with the truth. Ever since, Joy's been of the opinion that fiction is way more interesting than reality. She credits her love of tortured heroes to the Brontë sisters, her fascination with magical adventure to J.R.R. Tolkien, and her weakness for snarky humor to Douglas Adams.
Join Joy's mailing list at www.joynash.com for info about new releases. Connect with Joy at facebook.com/joynash.
May the stories never end!
Joy once read a book about a girl living on the moon and thought it was real, until her big sister messed everything up with the truth. Ever since, Joy's been of the opinion that fiction is way more interesting than reality. She credits her love of tortured heroes to the Brontë sisters, her fascination with magical adventure to J.R.R. Tolkien, and her weakness for snarky humor to Douglas Adams.
Join Joy's mailing list at www.joynash.com for info about new releases. Connect with Joy at facebook.com/joynash.
May the stories never end!
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 14, 2024
This is such a great series
I love this series. It's wonderful. I love the historical details And the mystical quality of the magic. I love that it is an Arthurian legend, but Arthur's role in the Legend is not brought up until the end of the series. I plan on reading the series again But I have so many books I may never get to.
I love this series. It's wonderful. I love the historical details And the mystical quality of the magic. I love that it is an Arthurian legend, but Arthur's role in the Legend is not brought up until the end of the series. I plan on reading the series again But I have so many books I may never get to.
August 8, 2025
Loving a man like the hero has always been both hopelessly easy while at the same time damn hard. He is beloved by everyone he meets, his music touches hearts and minds, he is handsome and never without a willing female to share the night with. But with the heroine, he is distant. Foolish of her to declare her love for him knowing the age difference between them, the fact that he is her elder brothers best friend and the fact that his destiny keeps him constantly on the road without long periods of rest. But her heart has always cried out for him and she could not hope to contain in. But in declaring her love, she put a bigger wedge between them than ever. He is away from home for longer periods of time and when he's back, he is never warm or affectionate with her like he was when she was younger. The emotional coldness from him is hard for her to bare.
The hero is a lonely man who wishes desperately that things could be different for him. He doesn't want to wander the countryside any longer and the emotionless sex is not enough to warm his heart. He wants a home and he wants a wife but he never imagined the woman in his fantasies would be the young girl he doted on all those years ago. He is ashamed by his desires for her and immediately shuts down her advances. After another painful encounter of the heroine offering her love and the hero rejecting it, she is called upon to surrender to her own destiny. Visions of a brutal crime have haunted her for some time and she answers the call to travel forward in time 300 years in an attempt to stop it. The hero, frantic for her safety soon follows. While she takes up residence in the castle, he joins a traveling musical bard. When they reunite it's to the common goal of succeeding in their mission and returning home but nothing is as it seems. The repressive world they find themselves in where magic and Druids are thought of as evil is not easy to navigate. The ones who are most dangerous live under the cover of secrets and worst of all, the hero finds the heroine favoring the attention of another man.
The hero must come to terms with the fact that while he may not believe he deserves the heroines love, she isn't capable of retreating and the love she has for him is more powerful than any Deep Magic could ever be.
Well, sad to say this is another case of first impressions failing to carry through. At the start? I was hooked. The painful unrequited love of a young woman desperate to show the hero she is not a child any longer and cares naught for the age difference or the hard life of a traveler that awaits her should she marry him. Watching him sleep with other women, watching while he shows affection and love to everyone other than herself- enough strangers- is extremely hard. She wants him to love her and she loves him but he is closed off to her and she doesn't understand why. I liked that strained relationship between them that showed a true desire for one another while at the same time feelings like mountains separated them. I liked all that....I didn't like the direction the story went after the time travel. It became extremely focused on the mythology and the lifestyle of the times they found themselves in and in particular the battle for one very beautiful duchess who inspired war for her hand. It lost me when the hero and heroine spent less than 50 some odd pages actually within each others company. This separation caused me to lose interest as well, it failed to give their love story any real solution. Instead of working out their differences and their issues the author instead chose to have them have sex and I guess change their minds on their being together? It honestly felt that way because suddenly, the hero was accepting of the heroines love without a concrete reason as to WHY. I am disappointed with this book and how lack luster it turned out to be after such promise at the start.
The hero is a lonely man who wishes desperately that things could be different for him. He doesn't want to wander the countryside any longer and the emotionless sex is not enough to warm his heart. He wants a home and he wants a wife but he never imagined the woman in his fantasies would be the young girl he doted on all those years ago. He is ashamed by his desires for her and immediately shuts down her advances. After another painful encounter of the heroine offering her love and the hero rejecting it, she is called upon to surrender to her own destiny. Visions of a brutal crime have haunted her for some time and she answers the call to travel forward in time 300 years in an attempt to stop it. The hero, frantic for her safety soon follows. While she takes up residence in the castle, he joins a traveling musical bard. When they reunite it's to the common goal of succeeding in their mission and returning home but nothing is as it seems. The repressive world they find themselves in where magic and Druids are thought of as evil is not easy to navigate. The ones who are most dangerous live under the cover of secrets and worst of all, the hero finds the heroine favoring the attention of another man.
The hero must come to terms with the fact that while he may not believe he deserves the heroines love, she isn't capable of retreating and the love she has for him is more powerful than any Deep Magic could ever be.
Well, sad to say this is another case of first impressions failing to carry through. At the start? I was hooked. The painful unrequited love of a young woman desperate to show the hero she is not a child any longer and cares naught for the age difference or the hard life of a traveler that awaits her should she marry him. Watching him sleep with other women, watching while he shows affection and love to everyone other than herself- enough strangers- is extremely hard. She wants him to love her and she loves him but he is closed off to her and she doesn't understand why. I liked that strained relationship between them that showed a true desire for one another while at the same time feelings like mountains separated them. I liked all that....I didn't like the direction the story went after the time travel. It became extremely focused on the mythology and the lifestyle of the times they found themselves in and in particular the battle for one very beautiful duchess who inspired war for her hand. It lost me when the hero and heroine spent less than 50 some odd pages actually within each others company. This separation caused me to lose interest as well, it failed to give their love story any real solution. Instead of working out their differences and their issues the author instead chose to have them have sex and I guess change their minds on their being together? It honestly felt that way because suddenly, the hero was accepting of the heroines love without a concrete reason as to WHY. I am disappointed with this book and how lack luster it turned out to be after such promise at the start.
July 26, 2011
I’m one of those who likes to read a series in order. However, Sybil has pretty much broken me of that habit over the past number of months. But once in a while there’s a series that just needs to be read the way it’s intended. This is one of those series. It’s not that you miss anything from previous books or you don’t know who the characters are or anything like that. In this case it’s the feel of the story.
Ms. Nash has given us her spin on the Arthurian legend, and her research and ultimate writing is so rich and lavish, so full of a magical essence that reading the series in order would enhance the pleasure received when sitting down with these books. The reader would gain so much more from the series as a whole than just reading one or two of them or reading the last one first, as I’ve done. Do I feel that I lost a little something in just reading this one book so far? Yeah, I do. There’s so much more to it, more to be had in all those variable nuances that I know from reading this book will be in the others and will bring the series together.
Rhys is a Druid from Avalon and he’s been traveling most of his life to find young ones who have the promise of magic in them to keep Avalon and its magic and mysticism alive. After so many years, he’s tired and longs for home, but though he visits when he can, Avalon hasn’t been his home for a long time. This visit is brought on by the sudden urge to see Breena, despite everything in him telling him he shouldn’t. She’s much too young and innocent for man such as himself, but she’s also someone that he desperately needs.
Not having heard from Rhys in nearly a year, Breena finally gives in and scries his whereabouts just to make sure he’s all right. But she gets more than she bargained for when she witnesses him heading into the arms of another woman. Though she tries to put him and what she sees out of her mind and heart, when Rhys finally comes home, she finds she can’t harden her heart toward him. She’s loved him for too long to do so. But nothing has changed for Rhys, and after an argument when he tells her there can be nothing between them, Breena has the opportunity to be her own woman and to right the wrong she’s had visions about for so many years.
Whisked three hundred years into the future by Myrddin, a powerful Druid, Breena is cast into the middle of war between two lords who want the same woman, the woman who she must help protect to save the Avalon and Britain she knows from a dark and ugly future. After searching for Breena when she’s discovered missing, Rhys follows a nearly hidden, magical thread right into the future to bring Breena home. What they run into and experience in that space of time before they do get home hits everything from grief to unadulterated joy, with all kinds of magic thrown in.
I thoroughly enjoyed this story. There’s a little of everything for every type of reader, and the romance between Rhys and Breena is a hard road, but one that is worth every dogged step it took to get there, for them and for the reader.
See my complete review at http://www.goodbadandunread.com
Ms. Nash has given us her spin on the Arthurian legend, and her research and ultimate writing is so rich and lavish, so full of a magical essence that reading the series in order would enhance the pleasure received when sitting down with these books. The reader would gain so much more from the series as a whole than just reading one or two of them or reading the last one first, as I’ve done. Do I feel that I lost a little something in just reading this one book so far? Yeah, I do. There’s so much more to it, more to be had in all those variable nuances that I know from reading this book will be in the others and will bring the series together.
Rhys is a Druid from Avalon and he’s been traveling most of his life to find young ones who have the promise of magic in them to keep Avalon and its magic and mysticism alive. After so many years, he’s tired and longs for home, but though he visits when he can, Avalon hasn’t been his home for a long time. This visit is brought on by the sudden urge to see Breena, despite everything in him telling him he shouldn’t. She’s much too young and innocent for man such as himself, but she’s also someone that he desperately needs.
Not having heard from Rhys in nearly a year, Breena finally gives in and scries his whereabouts just to make sure he’s all right. But she gets more than she bargained for when she witnesses him heading into the arms of another woman. Though she tries to put him and what she sees out of her mind and heart, when Rhys finally comes home, she finds she can’t harden her heart toward him. She’s loved him for too long to do so. But nothing has changed for Rhys, and after an argument when he tells her there can be nothing between them, Breena has the opportunity to be her own woman and to right the wrong she’s had visions about for so many years.
Whisked three hundred years into the future by Myrddin, a powerful Druid, Breena is cast into the middle of war between two lords who want the same woman, the woman who she must help protect to save the Avalon and Britain she knows from a dark and ugly future. After searching for Breena when she’s discovered missing, Rhys follows a nearly hidden, magical thread right into the future to bring Breena home. What they run into and experience in that space of time before they do get home hits everything from grief to unadulterated joy, with all kinds of magic thrown in.
I thoroughly enjoyed this story. There’s a little of everything for every type of reader, and the romance between Rhys and Breena is a hard road, but one that is worth every dogged step it took to get there, for them and for the reader.
See my complete review at http://www.goodbadandunread.com
January 27, 2010
Courtesy of CK2S Kwips and Kritiques
A CK2S K2 Recommended Read!
Once again in Silver Silence, Joy Nash takes us on a grand adventure to the mystical land of Avalon, home of the Druids. Let us continue the story of the birth of Camelot....
Breena is a Seer, called by Myrrdin to travel forward in time and assist him in his dream of finding a true leader of the people. Breena is the only Druid with the power and magic Myrrdin needs to save Lady Igraine and ensure the birth of the King destined to save England.
Rhys is a Druid minstrel tasked with the duty of finding other people with the gifts of Druidry to bring them to Avalon for training. It is only through Rhys’s gift of seeing potential in others they can ensure the continuation of the Druid ways. When he follows Breena into the future to rescue her, he finds that the only thing Breena needs is his heart. In the deep Silver Silence they find a love to stand the test of time.
I love Joy Nash’s work and I like to read different variations of the legend of King Arthur, so it was a given I’d enjoy Silver Silence. Joy works some fantastic twists into the story, leading us down various trails, only for us to find that we were going the wrong direction, shocking us with how several storylines play out in the end. These surprises make for an even more compelling tale, keeping us turning the pages long into the night, eager to see what will happen next. I shivered at how well Joy portrays the sense of impending doom hovering in the air should Breena fail in her mission to save Igraine... and Myrrdin too?
Breena and Rhys have been present in each of the preceding books in the Druids of Avalon series and I have come to adore both of them, even while I wanted to smack Rhys for stubbornly denying his deep affection for Breena. We’ve known from the beginning these two were destined to be together and finally we get the resolution of their love story. Breena and Rhys are a perfect match, even so far as to have Druid gifts that work so well together. The secondary love stories we find here… that of the great Myrrdin and his lady love and of Uther and Igraine, soul mates meant to become the parents of the greatest king England has ever known... add to the story and are every bit as enjoyable as the primary romance of Breena and Rhys.
Joy Nash brings us a brilliantly told, highly original imagining of the world of Avalon and the birth of the legend of King Arthur in Silver Silence. Joy, please tell me we have many more adventures to look forward to in the Druids of Avalon series!
© Kelley A. Hartsell, November 2009. All rights reserved.
A CK2S K2 Recommended Read!
Once again in Silver Silence, Joy Nash takes us on a grand adventure to the mystical land of Avalon, home of the Druids. Let us continue the story of the birth of Camelot....
Breena is a Seer, called by Myrrdin to travel forward in time and assist him in his dream of finding a true leader of the people. Breena is the only Druid with the power and magic Myrrdin needs to save Lady Igraine and ensure the birth of the King destined to save England.
Rhys is a Druid minstrel tasked with the duty of finding other people with the gifts of Druidry to bring them to Avalon for training. It is only through Rhys’s gift of seeing potential in others they can ensure the continuation of the Druid ways. When he follows Breena into the future to rescue her, he finds that the only thing Breena needs is his heart. In the deep Silver Silence they find a love to stand the test of time.
I love Joy Nash’s work and I like to read different variations of the legend of King Arthur, so it was a given I’d enjoy Silver Silence. Joy works some fantastic twists into the story, leading us down various trails, only for us to find that we were going the wrong direction, shocking us with how several storylines play out in the end. These surprises make for an even more compelling tale, keeping us turning the pages long into the night, eager to see what will happen next. I shivered at how well Joy portrays the sense of impending doom hovering in the air should Breena fail in her mission to save Igraine... and Myrrdin too?
Breena and Rhys have been present in each of the preceding books in the Druids of Avalon series and I have come to adore both of them, even while I wanted to smack Rhys for stubbornly denying his deep affection for Breena. We’ve known from the beginning these two were destined to be together and finally we get the resolution of their love story. Breena and Rhys are a perfect match, even so far as to have Druid gifts that work so well together. The secondary love stories we find here… that of the great Myrrdin and his lady love and of Uther and Igraine, soul mates meant to become the parents of the greatest king England has ever known... add to the story and are every bit as enjoyable as the primary romance of Breena and Rhys.
Joy Nash brings us a brilliantly told, highly original imagining of the world of Avalon and the birth of the legend of King Arthur in Silver Silence. Joy, please tell me we have many more adventures to look forward to in the Druids of Avalon series!
© Kelley A. Hartsell, November 2009. All rights reserved.
November 3, 2009
All I can say is that this book is amazing. Amazing, amazing AMAZING. For anyone who loves both Celtic and Arthurian legend and lore, this is a MUST READ. Although this book is third in the DRUIDS OF AVALON series, it can be read on its own without confusion. But the others in the series are just as fantastic, and I'd recommend reading them in order. Joy Nash is a brilliant writer, and this was one of my favorite books of 2009.
April 27, 2017
I quite liked this series as a whole. Nash did a lovely job of establishing a deep backstory for the Arthurian legend, with a nice mix of history, fantasy, and romance.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews